Computer Restarts Itself - Comments Page 7

I've checked almost everything on my computer and nothing has gone bad. The only thing I haven't checked/replaced is the processor, which I will be doing within the next week and a half. It will run in the BIOS as long as I want it to, but during or shortly after windows startup it randomly restarts. It has a brand new mother board and power supply, and anything else has been tested using a seperate computer. I disabled the overheat restart, but it runs at about 50 deg. celsius. I disable the restart when error occurs option in windows, but I get no blue screen of death when it does restart. It used to happen at very lengthy intervals, perhaps once a week, but the time between restarts has been getting progressively shorter, and now it doesn't run for more than 15 minutes if windows starts at all. Windows tells me it is a hardware problem. Are these prblems indicative of a cpu failure? If not then what are your suggestions?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd suspect RAM or motherboard.

You May want to try updating your BIOS with the latest BIOS file. I just had this problem when installing a new Graphics card. I needed to update my BIOS as the harware was newer then my computer is. You can find the latest Bios update file from your PC manufacturer's web site.

Your knowledge base is helpful to me diagnosing some problems but i have still something to worry about. When i install audio driver on my PC, it reboots while reaching to the end of installation leaving installation incomplete and hence my pc without audio driver. Can you help? Thanking you in advance.

My computer restarts during heavily resource-demanding programs. I'm pretty sure it's not hardware, because I reformatted and reinstalled Windows XP, and it temporarily fixed it. Now its doing it again and I am starting to suspect Windows Update. Both before and after the reformat, this problem has seemed to occur shortly after a large amount of updating from Microsoft. Is it possible that Windows Update is the culprit? Thanks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: That doesn't seem likely to me. I'd rule out out overheating or bad ram before suspecting any software.

My computer restarts when: I Try to run a dvd from my dvd player or Play MMORPG's (often just a fem min's in the game. I hear a faint "click" before reboot, and sometimes the screen goes white, with ascii-like blocks, then computer reboot. I have unchecked automatic reboot, but still dont get any BSOD.

It first started when I was playing games like WoW and LOTRO, so then I figured it would be the graphics card, but since I found out trying to play a DVD also rebooted the computer, I aint that sure. Im more convinced of a bad power supply now. What do you think it may be? Im a little anxious to format my main drive since the DVD player seems to restart the system.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Unfortunately you have to do some trial and error testing. Start with the power supply, then the video card, and/or RAM...

I opened my computer for cleaning. After that it didnt start. I pressed ram, processor and it worked. But now it restarts rendomly. I removed heatsink cleaned. No improvment.

Initially it takes sometime to reboot. But after 1 hr or so it restarts very often. Even sometime I am in BIOS setting. I checked temp. seems ok. I noticed that when temp in the room is cold, it restarts very often.

Is it virus, component failure OR BIOS ?

EDITOR'S NOTE: My first guess would be component failure, probably RAM or power supply.

My PC restarts automatically even when I'm in BIOS setting. (Removed HDD,DVD drive, mouse, keyboard). Still it happens. if HDD connected sometime it goes into windows and stays for like 12 mins before restarting.

I took it to the motherboard test-support-center and he plugged it and it ran good for half hour and he returned it saying Motherboard is fine. I tried the PC at my office and it worked good for 3 hours, without any restarts.

I brought it to home ,and again it restarts at random intervals.

The only difference between my office setup and home setup is . (used same Mouse, KB at office and home) different LCD monitors, AirConditioning at office and nothing at home. Power. Any hints or suggestions for further debugging would be great.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Try swapping out the power supply.

my computer is restarting by its own when just power button is pressed, please help me. thank you

EDITOR'S NOTE: Isn't it supposed to do that?

I recently installed a new graphics card because my old one was dying. For some reason, my computer will run for about 30 seconds, just long enough for it to boot windows and get to desktop, and then it suddenly restarts to a black screen with text on it that lists my new video card's name and specs.

I uninstalled the old drivers before installing the new card. I'm running windows xp, and the old card I'm replacing was an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, the new one is an NVIDIA Geforce fx 5200. Any suggestions?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think this necessarily means that your video is/was at fault. Especially since you replaced the video card and the problem remains.

My computer runs fine except when I shut down it goes through the process and then restarts itsself. I just built it from a bare bones kit.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Failure to shutdown is usually related to a driver problem. It may not sound very helpful, but you might try installing updated drivers for each hardware component until you nail the problem.

I just downloaded two demo games: Lego Star Wars II and Lego Indiana Jones. I've also just installed a new graphics card: geforce 6200 (neither demo would work with the old graphics card... we plan to buy the games for my son's b-day.)

The Star Wars demo now works fine... however, while playing the Lego Indiana Jones demo, the PC will restart after @30 minutes of play. I changed some of the graphics and video settings which seemed to help some, but it still restarts. Could the graphics card be overheating? I've already updated the graphics card driver, as well. This is the only application I've run that has caused the PC to restart like this. So, it seems to be linked to this game.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, an overheating condition is likely, although it could be the video card or the CPU.

My computer restarts, after i starrt a game or a video...

Im tired of this.. Now the game dont start at all i reboot my computer 10 times a day, ant they still dont work..

EDITOR'S NOTE: So... hopefully you've read the article and all the comments. Given that info, what specifically have you done to diagnose the problem?

I recently upgraded the CPU and RAM in my PC and flashed the BIOS (in order to recognise the CPU). I also reformatted my HD and re-installed Windows XP (as the file \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM had got corrupted).

Unfortunately, my PC now randomly restarts itself, even when I'm doing no more than writing an email. I don't think the CPU is overheating as I put some nice new thermal paste on and I've got the side cover off and the motherboard probe says the chip is running at 40-44C. I've even switched back to the old RAM and it's still happening.

Could it be a faulty CPU (would the PC even startup if that was the case?) or bad HD? Any ideas?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, it *could* be any of those things. Could also be a power supply or motherboard issue. The only way to diagnose these tricky overheating problems is to isolate and swap one component at a time.

Hi, I've been having this problem for more than a year now; my computer often just restarts randomly, but mostly when I'm playing a game or trying to install one. But sometimes it even does it while I'm just using Word with some other program(s) like Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player...

I hear it click softly, screen goes black and then it just runs through the entire booting process... I've already tried to take out all dust on a regular basis to avoid overheating, but it doesn't fix the problem...

Are there any other factors I can check to make sure overheating isn't the problem (like the fact that my pc is in a small cabinet or close to a wall or something like that) or do you think it's more likely to be something else?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ventilation and room temp can make a difference. But I'd run SpeedFan to make sure that the CPU is not overheating.

Hi I just converted this to NFS as before it was FAT 32 System and as I converted it bk to NFS I thought it would solve the promblem but no it some how restarting it self for no reason but I only have 512MB memory would you recommend that I should wipe the drive out and install it again would that solve the problem or upgrading to a better RAM?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think reformatting is likely to help. Start with the RAM.

I am having the same problem with computer restarting. I cleaned inside computer, replaced heatsink. It will work fine for a few days or even weeks then it starts doing it again. I will be on line for 10 min. and it restarts. Any ideas on what I can check next? Thanks

EDITOR'S NOTE: Does cleaning it again give you another few days of no restarts? How about the fans inside the case? They can go bad, too. SpeedFan is a good diagnostic tool for these problems.

After a certain gap if I am restarting my computer it restarts itself with no specific reason for the first time. But after that it works well. The win XP generates an error report

(System has recovered a fatal error)after wards, saying some problem with the Local- setting/temp folder two files.

Again I would like to mention sometimes my keyboard does not work and the lights on it constantly blinks.Please tell me the recovery..

Cleaning does not seem to do anything. I replaced the heatsink and fan. Speed fan only detects 1 fan, with the temps being fan 1 50c next 83c hdd 33c.

EDITOR'S NOTE: 83c is very high, if that's the CPU (processor).

I don't know if this is the cpu temp. The temp of 83c is next to the fan that has 0RPM. Could this be the power supply?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The CPU temp should be clearly labelled. Fans do not have a temperature, only the things they're trying to cool. At any rate, 83C is VERY hot for ANY component. That's 181 degrees Fahrenheit.

I have changed the mother board and power supply also but still restarts itself so can you please kindly solve this problem, I don't know what is wrong with this.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please read the entire article, and all the comments. There are SO many other factors that can cause the restart problem.